Polishing aluminum

Topic: Polishing aluminum (Read 971 times) previous topic - next topic

Polishing aluminum

December 23, 2005, 10:54:26 PM

Ok...so I got this aluminum tubing that I plan to use to make a cold air intake out of.

I was thinking that it would be nice to polish this stuff and not have to worry about paint, but I've never really polished anything before.

For starters, the surface of the tubing is rather rough, I guess from being put through the mandrel bender. What do I use to smooth off the surface, and what do I need to make it shine? I'd prefer to invest as little as possible into this polishing process. We have some cloth "hats" like you would use to polish a car that I could put in an angle grinder or something...could I use these with some polishing compound?

Polishing aluminum

Reply #1 – December 23, 2005, 11:52:50 PM

most guys i talk to use sand paper, go progressivly finer grit till around a thousand, then use some kind of highspeed rotary polishing bit and metal polish. even just useing a wire wheel will get it shiny, but still rough (the wire wheel scratches it)

Polishing aluminum

Reply #2 – December 23, 2005, 11:55:58 PM

Hmm...I might do the wire wheel thing then and go for a brushed finish. That'd be a little less maintenence than a polished finish would be.

Polishing aluminum

Reply #3 – December 24, 2005, 12:20:21 AM

depending on the aluminum, your gonna have to clear coat it with something to keep it shiny. polish will work. clear starts to yellow after a while to. im not sure what the makers of actual polished aluminum stuff use sence it never yellows

Polishing aluminum

Reply #4 – December 24, 2005, 10:14:34 AM

I used a dremel to polish. First used the rounded sandpaper type bit to knock down the texture. Then I used the small sanding disk to even everything out. I then followed that sanding by hand with different grades of sandpaper leading up to 2000 grit. It turned out pretty good.

Polishing aluminum

Reply #5 – December 24, 2005, 05:12:41 PM

i've polished a bunch of stuff on my stang and now working on the TC but what i would do is Sand by hand from 180-220-400-800. it should be pretty clean and smooth by then. If it still has scratches that look deep hit it again with 220 and move up. once its nice and smooth i use my drill and a bench grinder with a tight woven polishing wheel. For beginning polishing use Tripoli to get it to a good shine. then polish by hand with a good aluminum polish like mothers or meguires.